Mother Nature Sends Her Love

Today’s wonderful thing in my garden was so tiny-it was a heart-shaped loop of cucumber tendrils. But it was wonderful just the same, and here is why:

I once had lunch with a handsome atheist. “I don’t believe in God,” he told me. “Yes, you told me.” “I believe in Father Time and Mother Nature. And I believe they are benevolent.”

This surprised me. Why would Mother Nature and Father Time be benevolent? It also surprised me that as a Christian, I believed something very close to that myself. In fact, very, very ancient religious beliefs (long before what we label as religions) were also very close to that.

The sun shines every day and the plants grow. Clear water flows and fruits ripen. These things nourish me and comfort me like a mother. Mother Nature loves me. Very ancient religions had no church buildings, but they had sacred places. They had no prayer books but they had the whole blooming, breathing world sending them a message. You are loved. You are part of all this and you are loved.

It was not a set of dogmas to which one must pledge allegiance. It was wallowing around in Life. When Europeans asked natives about their religions, they concluded the natives had none. In a way, they did not. They had Life and it happened more often than one hour on Sunday morning.

We have lost something there. We should try to get it back. 🙂